Though there is so much darkness right now, the glimmer of hope for me has been seeing the impressive number of Catholics calling for action in response to the sex abuse scandals.
One of the call-to-action efforts I have been particularly impressed by is the movement started by Bonnie Engstrom (A Knotted Life) and Kendra Tierney (Catholic All Year) calling for prayer, fasting, and other acts of reparation. You can read more here and here.
However, something people are understandably struggling with is the concept of reparation.
People are rightfully angry, and the idea of doing acts of reparation for these horrific sexual abuse cases can be disturbing.
People are rightfully angry, and the idea of doing acts of reparation for these horrific sexual abuse cases can be disturbing. Click To TweetIt is my hope that when we look into what reparation means and its role in Christian tradition, we will grow more comfortable with the idea, even though it is still admittedly challenging.
If you’re short on time, I think these two images created by Kendra are a nice summary.
Definition
Merriam-Webster defines reparation as:
a : the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury
b : something done or given as amends or satisfaction
With this definition, it is understandable why people would not be thrilled with the idea of making reparation; most Catholics are not guilty.
Catholic theology provides a different definition.
EWTN explains
“reparation is the making of amends for insults given to God through sin, either one’s own or another’s…Saint Margaret Mary saw Christ’s heart and his love ignored and ridiculed; the response of man is to be reparation through adoration, prayer, and sacrifice.”
We aren’t doing acts of reparation because we condone the sin or because we think the person who committed the sin should get off scot-free (though we should pray that God shows mercy to all of us). Instead, it is recognizing that sin hurts God and desire to heal the Body of Christ.
Susan Skinner shares her experience of God talking to her saying “these are my people, they can be converted, pray for them.”
Catholic Online provides two reasons for making reparation to God:
“1) to repair for our own offences against Him, 2) by virtue of the Communion of the Saints, we can also make satisfaction or reparation for the sins of others.”
To be clear, this isn’t to say that Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t sufficient for us. It is instead recognizing that there are consequences to our sins.
To be fair, this is a complicated topic (and you can learn more here, here and here), but here’s my imperfect summary. Sin hurts God. Because we should love God more than we are angry about the sins of others, we want to console Him. Because we are one Body of Christ, this allows for healing even though we are in no way responsible for the sins of others.
Scripture
The most obvious example of reparation is modeled by Christ Himself. He wasn’t guilty of any sins, and by offering Himself, He was the victim of even more sins.
In the Old Testament, we hear about people making offerings to God as reparation. But, if a person couldn’t on his own, he might go in with a neighbor. There are also instances where the priest offered sacrifices on behalf of the people.
In the New Testament, we hear about the apostles offering sacrifices and offering their sufferings for God.
Tradition
In addition to Scripture, we have a rich Christian tradition of making reparation.
The most common one (and one that we can easily overlook for what it is) is praying and making offerings for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The souls are in purgatory because, though they have no mortal sins and the other sins are forgiven, they have not paid fully for their sins. When we pray for them, offer a Mass for them, etc., we are praying that the will be delivered from their sin (cf. 2 Macc 12:46). You can also look at CCC 1032.
There are confraternities and other religious organizations dedicated to making reparations for the sins of the world.
When Mary appeared to people, she also asked them to make reparations. For example, Our Lady of Fatima asked the shepherd children to make sacrifices. You can read a great summary here, but one example is what Our Lady requested before leaving: “Pray, pray a lot and do penance for those who sin. A lot of souls go to Hell because they have nobody who sacrifices oneself and prays for them.”
Jesus asked Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque for reparations to be made to console his sacred heart. Jesus said
Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love. In return, I receive from the greater part [of humanity] only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love” [Holy Communion]. It is for this reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament, be appropriated to a special feast to honor My Heart by receiving Communion on that day, and making reparation for the indignity that It [My Heart] has received. And I promise that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of My Love on all who will render It this honor or will obtain My Heart being given this honor.
Monsignor Arthur Burton Calkins explains more on consoling the Sacred Heart and the theological meanings of reparation in this detailed article.
Popes continued encouraging this devotion and even consecrated entire dioceses to the Sacred Heart.
Imploring Christ’s Divine Mercy and/or practicing devotion to the Divine Mercy can be incredibly powerful. Through this, we experience the Fountain of Mercy from Christ while asking forgiveness for our sins and those “of the whole world.” Christ instructed Saint Faustina “Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the heavenly Father for sinners.” EWTN provides some excellent information about this devotion.
Difficulties
All these explanations aside, it is so much easier to do this in theory than in practice. It’s easy to pray that God is merciful to all when it is hypothetical, but when the sins are laid out before you in a 1,300 page document, it becomes more difficult.
I’m not saying stop being angry. I’m not saying don’t be disgusted. I’m not saying you should keep the pain inside.
What I am saying is that as we process these difficult emotions, we should use prayer to hold us up.
Remember, doing acts of reparation isn’t taking on the guilt itself, nor is it a request to stop earthly justice.
Furthermore, this shouldn’t be the only thing we do. We should be praying for the victims and supporting them. We should pray they find justice. We should be praying and making sacrifices for the healing of our Church. We should pray the evil is rooted out and all crimes are brought to light. We should pray and advocate for changes. We should pray for the good and holy clergy who model what this Vocation is supposed to be, who guide the faithful, and who set up protections to prevent these crimes from happening again.
Practices
So where should we start?
I think the first place is to pray that God gives us the grace to be able to do these acts of reparation. If God is asking us to do this, then He will help us do it.
General Prayers
If you’re still not happy with the idea of doing acts of reparation, consider for looking for more general prayers.
For example, several versions of the morning offering (see one example below) have a part where we are offering our days in reparation of sin. Personally, I think this is a great prayer regardless, but it seems particularly appropriate during this time.
We could also pray the prayer that was taught to the children in Fatima
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you! I ask pardon of you for those who do not believe, not adore, do not hope, and do not love you.”
The benefit of both these prayers is they ask for God’s mercy on others, but it doesn’t require naming specific sins.
Making our prayers specific is important, but I think these are starting points because I know it is difficult to pray for the clergy who did these sins when the sins are so horrific.
Daily Practices
There are a lot of things you can do throughout the day.
I’ve talked about #sackclothandashes which calls for prayer and fasting.
Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. wrote a helpful piece on penance and reparation.
You can make reparation your rosary intention. Ben and I have been praying the sorrowful mysteries, and this has been very helpful for mourning what happened in the Church. Sara of To Jesus, Sincerely wrote a powerful meditation for the sorrowful mysteries and connected them to the current situation.
Speaking of suffering, though the phrase “offer it up” can leave a bad taste in peoples’ mouths, it is a powerful form of prayer. Though it is a complicated topic (more details here and here), simply, it is telling God you want to offer your pain as a sacrifice for a particular intention.
Weekly Practices
I know some people may argue these should be daily practices, but I would be a hypocrite to organize them this way. Honestly, I’m struggling to even do the rosary daily.
One way is to offer your Mass in reparation. It’s a good practice to have an intention for each Mass anyways, and now is a better time than ever to start.
Additionally, consider doing a Holy Hour. I’ve heard that some parishes are starting to add hours for Eucharistic Adoration, but you can also look for a local perpetual adoration chapel or simply sit in front of the tabernacle. No time with Christ is wasted.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation
Regularly receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation is also very beneficial (thank you to my husband for bringing this up and finding me sources). Though we aren’t guilty, confessing our own sins is a way to heal our Church as a whole.
We see this in both Scripture:
And if one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it: or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it. – 1 Corinthians 12:26
and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1469 This sacrament reconciles us with the Church. Sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members. Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland:
It must be recalled that… this reconciliation with God leads, as it were, to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches caused by sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where he regains his innermost truth. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he has in some way offended and wounded. He is reconciled with the Church. He is reconciled with all creation.
Special Devotions
Lastly, consider looking into some of the beautiful devotions in our Christian tradition.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Since reparation is about consoling the heart of Jesus, consider looking into a devotion to the Sacred Heart.
I highly recommend the book Healing Promises (my review here).
Our Catholic Prayers shares a prayer of reparation to the Sacred Heart and Fired up Catholics has information about the First Friday practice.
Divine Mercy
In addition (or alternatively), you could look into the Divine Mercy Devotion. I shared a link from EWTN earlier in this post that I think is a very helpful starting point.
Saint Faustina’s Diary could also be an interesting read, but I haven’t read it myself.
***
I had a hard time coming up with a way to wrap up this post.
I wanted to express that I get that it’s difficult. I’m struggling, too.
When I read Kirby’s blog post about what we as women should be doing in the Church (which is a great post everyone should read, by the way), she shared this:
Everyone in pain reaches a point where it just feels too painful to go on. But like a woman in the transition stage of labor, this point of no return is where we have to go if we wish to see new life spring forth.
We are going through an incredibly painful time, and honestly, I think it is going to get much worse before it gets better. We as faithful Catholics will struggle. We will need to work together to heal our Church.
And when we do, I believe we will see something new and beautiful come out of all this darkness.
Please God, heal Your Church!
First, thank you very much for this, and previous posts.
Now, the way I see it, the Body of Christ has, again, been horribly disfigured—beyond recognition, we might say—, as it was on the Cross, by the wounds inflicted by his own people, most egregiously by some pastors who abused their sheep unspeakably instead of fostering them. For me, reparation is in this case to let Him know with works that you feel for Him and wish to undo the damage.
We need to see this crisis in the context of the continued efforts of the “gates of hell” to prevail. We can rest assured they will fail, again, and like all preceding tragedies in the history of the Church—beginning with early martyrs—it will bring a new resurgence of the Catholic Church (seemingly the one Satan is most intent on destroying).
The question is how we are going to cooperate personally. I understand those who are losing faith in the institution even to the point of parting with it. But we should do as all the saints who—instead of deserting the Church or trying to reform her, when the pastors failed to lead according to the Spirit of God—helped recover the divine favor with their own actions and sacrifice. They had “dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” Let’s do the same!
Thank you for sharing your powerful thoughts!
This was so helpful for me understanding the point and reason for reparations.